Gaslighting Brigade 😱🤡 ✡️🌻😱🤡

More Obfuscation: Trump’s response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by an INS agent, is that she was the aggressor, a radical agitator out to mow down any Fed who got in her way; therefore, according to him, what happened to her was her own fault.  Keeping with the gaslighting theme, Veep JD Vance called Good a victim of leftist ideology rather than the victim of a bad shooting. He went on to assert that Jonathan Ross, the INS agent who shot her has absolutely immunity. He doesn’t not that he has much to worry about since the FBI has wrested full control of the investigation into the shooting and will not be cooperating with local officials.  That’s not normal, and given who is running the FBI right now, it’s fair to believe that the result of any investigation has already been predetermined: INS agent Ross will be declared a hero, Good a domestic terrorist, maybe Ross will even get a White House invite and a medal of honor.  Worth noting, law enforcement officials are trained not to shoot at moving vehicles in circumstances like this. They’re also trained or are supposed to be trained not to have their i-Phones in one hand while running, then shooting at someone, with the weapon in their other hand.  Apparently, Agent Ross, who the INS says had years of experience and who was wounded after a gnarly experience with a fleeing car last year hasn’t gotten that message or is still suffering PTSD from his prior experience, bad for him but lethal for Good. The Trump administration doesn’t appear to be backing down.  On Wednesday after the shooting, a team of Border Patrol agents led by Gregory Bovino, the Border Control Commander of short stature with a serious Napolean complex, chased a suspect into a local high school. That chase resulted in chaos, heightening fear in already tense Minneapolis leading to a decision by local authorities to close the city’s schools for the remainder of the week. Following directions from her dear leader,  Kristi Noem, another one who likes to act out, is sending 100 more agents to Minneapolis. What more could possibly go wrong in the already traumatized city?  It’s not just Minneapolis, yesterday two people were shot and injured by ICE in Portland, Oregon.  ICE said that the victims were weaponizing their vehicle, and maybe they were, but with all the lying about what happened in Minneapolis, it’s hard to know what really happened or whether shooting at people in a moving vehicle was the appropriate response under the circumstances. Congress has overfunded INS and its sister entities, they’re being run by people who obediently follow Trump and Stephen Miller’s orders, no matter how illegal, inappropriate, or suppressive. The next three years are going to be even harder than the last one and though it would be Pollyannish to believe otherwise.  With the “grey shirt” contingent growing our elections are in jeopardy. It certainly doesn’t help that Trump told the NY Times this week that he’s only accountable to his own morality.  Trump, morality, really?

Obamacare Subsidies: Yesterday, by a vote of 230 to 196 with 17(!) Republicans joining all Democrats, the House voted to cleanly extend the expired Obamacare subsidies for three years.  The trajectory of this vote is interesting, especially given that the failure to extend the subsidies was what led to last fall’s government shutdown.  At the end of last year, four Republicans (New York’s Lawler and Pennsylvania’s Fitzpatrick, Bresnahan, Mackenzie) crossed the aisle to support a Democrat led discharge petition forcing a vote on extending the subsidies. Instead of immediately following through, Speaker Johnson pushed the vote to January in the hope that his aisle crossers could be pressured to return to the Republican fold.  They didn’t, instead five more Republicans (New York’s LaLota, Ohio’s Miller, New Jersey’s Kean, Florida’s Salazar, and California’s Valadao) joined the original four and all Democrats in supporting a required procedural vote.  Yesterday, in a move that surprised many, especially Speaker Johnson, the group of Republicans supporting the extension of the subsidies expanded to include Ohio’s Carey, Texas’ De La Cruz, New York’s Garbarino, Colorado’s Hurd, Ohio’s Joyce, Iowa’s Nunn, Wisconsin’s Wittman. For the most part, the aisle crossers come from swing districts where they see the writing on the wall saying something like put up or get out.  The Obamacare subsidy extension bill is now in the hands of the Republican controlled Senate where sixty votes will be needed for passage. It’s unlikely that it will pass in its current form but maybe, just maybe a form of it with some qualification limits will make it. Some Republicans are trying to add further restrictions to the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funding for abortions to the bill.  That’s a nonstarter for Democrats.  Even Trump, who doesn’t support the subsidy extension, has spoken out against expanding Hyde.    

War Powers: The Obamacare subsidy vote isn’t the only one spooking Republican leadership and twisting Trump’s whatevers into knots.   Yesterday by a vote of 52 to 47 with five Republican Senators crossing the aisle to join all Democrats including Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman who’d been wavering, the Senate voted to advance Democratic Senator Tim Kaine’s War Powers Act resolution that would require "the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress." That’s a bigly slap on the wrist for Trump who reacted by saying the War Powers Act is unconstitutional and that the five Republican Senators, a group that includes Indiana’s Todd Young, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Maine’s Susan Collins, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, and Missouri’s Josh Hawley, “should never be elected to office again.”  The passage of the resolution doesn’t mean that Trump’s actions will be curtailed but it does force a Senate floor debate in anticipation of another vote on his powers to be a warlord without Congressional authorization. In addition, the kind of cool thing about him pulling his support, or at the very least threatening to pull his support from Maine’s Susan Collins is that she’s up for reelection in a state that he lost in 2024.  She’s probably the only Republican who can hold that seat. Unfortunately, despite Trump losing yesterday’s vote he did chalk up two victories, his veto of water projects in Colorado and Florida were upheld.  

It's testy out there.  Stay safe.